1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay apparatus for relaying image information from a terminal on a computer network to a facsimile apparatus on a telephone network, and relates to a relay method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Relay apparatuses for relaying image information and the like from the Internet to the telephone network are conventionally developed. In a case of transmitting image information to a facsimile apparatus placed at a remote site through a PSTN (public switched telephone network), image information is sent to a relay apparatus located at an area where facsimile apparatuses are provided over the Internet according to an e-mail communication procedure, and the image information is transmitted to the facsimile apparatus from this relay apparatus via PSTN according to a facsimile procedure. This allows a large reduction in communication cost.
Moreover, in a local area network (LAN) and the like, one relay apparatus is used in common among a plurality of personal computers (PCs) in some cases. Namely, a relay apparatus for connecting LAN and PSTN is provided. Then, image information is transferred from PC to the relay apparatus via LAN according to the e-mail communication procedure, and the relay apparatus transmits image information to the facsimile apparatus via PSTN according to the facsimile procedure.
When a transmission destination is busy, a general facsimile apparatus executes a retry operation in which a call is once stopped and the call is originated again after a predetermined period of time. The conventional relay apparatus performs the retry operation in the similar way.
As mentioned above, a request source requests the relay apparatus to carry out the relay using e-mail. Since the relay apparatus is generally provided at a remote site, the request source does not recognize whether or not the relay apparatus is retrying.
Moreover, since the request source cannot control the relay apparatus, it cannot stop the retry. A cause for the occurrence of retry is that the transmission destination is a telephone since the transmission destination facsimile number is wrong. In such a case, since the request source cannot control the relay apparatus, the request source can neither stop the retry of relay nor avoid trouble in an erroneous calling.
In not only a case in which the relay apparatus is provided at the remote site but also a case in which a plurality of terminals shares the relay apparatus on the same premises, the PC operator must move to the relay apparatus in order to confirm the occurrence of retry or to stop the retry.
The present invention has been made as taking the above-mentioned problem into account, and an object of the present invention is to provide a relay apparatus and a relay method that is capable of easily recognizing as to whether or not the relay apparatus is retrying at a request source, which is placed at a remote site.
Moreover, another object of the present invention is to provide a relay apparatus and a relay method that is capable of stopping a retry for relay easily and correctly at a request source.
In order to solve the aforementioned problem, the present invention is designed to transmit a retry notification e-mail message, which notifies that transmission of facsimile data is retrying, to the request source that has requested the relay of an e-mail message over a computer network.
According to the present invention, it is possible for the request source to easily recognize that the relay apparatus is retrying even if the request source is remote from the relay apparatus.
Furthermore, the present invention is designed to stop a retry operation in accordance with an instruction from a request source that has received a retry notification e-mail message.
According to the present invention, it is possible for the request source to easily stop the retry operation of relay apparatus even if the request source is remote from the relay apparatus.